Jury begins deliberations in Ohio Craigslist murder trial

March 11, 2013|Reuters

By Kim Palmer

AKRON, Ohio, March 11 (Reuters) - Jurors began deliberatingon Monday in the trial of an Ohio street preacher accused ofmurdering down-on-their-luck men who answered a Craigslist adfor a non-existent job.

Richard Beasley, 53, was a "master manipulator" who preyedon people who were "easy targets and desperate for a betterlife," Jonathan Baumoel, Summit County assistant prosecutingattorney, told jurors in Akron, Ohio, during closing argumentsin the case.

Beasley is accused of killing Geiger first after luring himwith the possibility of a non-existent job, stealing hisidentity, and then killing the other two men after they answereda Craigslist ad for the job.

Beasley is also charged with the attempted murder of a SouthCarolina man, Scott Davis, who testified earlier in the trialthat he answered the ad for a $300-dollar-a-week farmhand job.

Baumoel told jurors that although there was no DNA evidencelinking Beasley to the murders, the overwhelming number ofconnections between him and the dead men is "the DNA of thecrime telling you who committed these crimes."

Beasley, dressed in a dark sport coat and tie, took notesand sometimes shook his head as Baumoel made his arguments.

Defense attorney James Burdon told jurors Beasley was "afall guy" and all the evidence in the case was circumstantial.The defense said members of a local motorcycle gang are the realkillers and that witnesses lied to protect themselves.

Burdon admitted that Beasley was trying to evade gettingarrested by using false identities and helped post theCraigslist ad but denied killing anyone.

The attacks were among a series of incidents involvingsocial media in which people advertising goods for sale orresponding to ads have been attacked and killed.

In 2009, a former medical student was accused of killing amasseuse he met through Craigslist. Last year, two men inTennessee were accused of killing a man and a woman for"unfriending" the daughter of one of the suspects on Facebook.

Beasley's alleged accomplice, Brogan Rafferty, 18, was triedas an adult and sentenced to life in prison without parole inNovember for his role in the deadly scheme.

The jurors in the Beasley case are sequestered. They willdeliberate until 9 p.m. local time Monday.